It’s Over

I always get sad when things are over.  The frost moved in and the garden is to bed for the winter.  We had an incredible harvest of tomatoes this year.  I canned four different batches, gave away baskets full, and fed my family tomatoes every day.

 

We gathered in bouquets this Fall to enjoy the flowers just a little longer.

 

I did get a couple of patches of garlic planted the first of October.  I cook with garlic A LOT!  There are so many different varieties and they just give that zing I need to my meats and dinners.

What I like about garlic is that as I’m harvesting the other, I can still be planting.

I’m sad gardening is over!  Bring out the good books and sewing projects, the cold weather is calling me to snuggle up.

Garden

Oh how we have enjoyed our garden this year.  There is nothing like a fresh garden tomato with salt and pepper, or crisp green beans fresh from the garden.  The flavor is just amazing!

   

This week I pulled a few onions, gathered a basket of tomatoes and a bunch of cilantro added a little garlic, jalapeños … and simmered a batch of salsa.   Seeing the pints sitting on the counter after the hot water bath just made me gleek at the thought of having them in my pantry.  There is just something about growing your own food.

This week I want to can some marinara sauce.   If my cucumbers would ever take off, I could can some pickles with my pretty dill, but by the time I have enough cucumbers all of my dill will probably be dead.  :( 

Fairy Houses

I picked up $1 wooden birdhouses from Michaels for the girls to create fairy houses.  I wasn’t prepared for how many HOURS the girls would spend making, creating and playing with them. 

We first painted them and then accessorized with legos, thimbles, glitter, seashells ….  A favorite is Kaylee’s tea party table that she made out of a spool of gold thread and a mirror compact….

Rebecca has a little checkered picnic cloth with a Polly Pocket spread of food by hers.  The garden is filled with fun shady spots.  Jerrica’s house is in the dill forest.  The ferny little dill plants add such a cute backdrop to hers.  I just hope my garden survives all of this fairy play.

 

Each of the girls’ houses is so unique.  We have sidewalks that are made out of half of a ruler, buttons, marbles and coins.  Ash is quite proud of her feather chimney and jingle bell doorbell.

My marigolds that I have mixed in with my tomato plants are actually “giant yellow TREES” for the fairies.  Pretend play is so much fun.  I think the reason it was such a hit is because they made their houses, the setting is in the garden, AND just because it’s fairies.  I am amazed at how much time they have spent on this!  A few minutes of helping them has given ME hours of my own free time.  :)

I found the idea for fairy houses at Lil Boo Blue.  You can see her post HERE.

Room to Grow

I planted my tomatoes inside the end of February.  When I set them outside in April, I had an extra one.  I kept it inside with my other seedlings thinking that if one of the plants outside died, I could replace it.  Well, none of the plants died.  In fact they thrived in their wall of waters.  I still kept the extra one with the other starts that hadn’t been set out yet.

This week I finished setting and planting EVERYTHING outside and still had this one little lone plant.  I looked at it and couldn’t believe how much different it looked from the others that I had planted by seed at the SAME time.

The plants I set out in the garden were given room to grow.  They could stretch their roots as far as they cared.  They could have sunlight all day, instead of just when it was shining through the window.

Of course I marched the kids outside to show them the difference.  I talked to them about how when we stay in our little, easy world, we can’t really grow and branch out.  Our lives are stunted when we don’t stretch and push ourselves.  We can grow bigger and be better if we venture out of our sheltered space.

I just can’t believe these plants were started at the same time, and how great the difference is.  It makes me step back and look at my life.  I want to fill a garden and not just a small container.  :)

Gardening

Jerrica helped me outside today.  We planted more seeds and beautified our yard a little more.  When we planted the mammoth sunflower seeds, Jerrica asked if they were zebra seeds.  :)

 

I assured her that I would never try and grow a zebra! 

I love how pretty my rhubarb flower is.  It is HUGE!  I which that it would stay on the plant all summer.  Why do all of the pretty Spring blossoms have to disappear so quickly?!?

Have you seen this gardening site - http://www.smartgardener.com/.  It is amazing!  It tied me over until I could actually start planting.

Then last but not least, I love having my raised bed garden.  It is such a perfect little perch for my kids to come and sit to visit with me.  Of course any visiting is done in between bites of popsicles.

  

I’m so glad the sun stays up ‘til late in the evening, AND I’m so glad that it is warm to be able to stay outside. 

The Lilacs

My lilacs are beautiful this year…

I have six bushes that border around my raised bed boxes…

 

The smell out there is heavenly!  I love seeing how much the lilac bushes grow each year.  They are turning into a nice little wind break for my garden.

This weekend we also went to Phelan Gardens.  They were having their Arbor Day festivities.  My girls did a little scavenger hunt around the gardens and each got a little pine seedling.  I let them each pick where they wanted to plant their seedlings when we got home.  Excited to have FOUR more trees growing!

I absolutely LOVE planting and gardening!

Random

Yes it’s time for another random post to fit in little bits from here and there.

My tomatoes from the Spring went from this to this…

I used my own onions and garlic from the garden as well.  Only one jalepeno pepper made it in, the rest had to be bought at the store.  I had a really hard time with my peppers this year. :(

Besides canning, Fall is also the time of year that Grandma Charla gets monarch caterpillars for us.  It is so fun to watch the different stages…

Also, it’s this time of year that I start thinking and working on Christmas gifts.  Some of the homemade ones take a while and the sooner I get on it the better.  I’m thinking about these for my reader kids.  Their nightstands are always piled so high with books that they can’t put anything else on them.  I found it on Pinterest, which linked it over to “One More Moore”.  I will make it to fit in between the mattress and boxspring.  I don’t know why it’s pictured under the pillows.  We have a remote control bag that hangs from our bed that sticks in between the mattress and springs.

I’m also trying to get a few more recipes typed and printed up to add to the older girls recipe books for Christmas.   I posted about them HERE.  It has been fun to see the recipes that they copy and add in their books.

Speaking of recipes, here is an oldie but goodie.  My roommate, April at BYU would make it and gave me the recipe.  My family LOVES this for breakfast!

My Garden

We have so enjoyed our garden this year.  In July we harvested 10 bulbs of garlic.  It was my first time growing garlic, and I think I fell in love with this type of garlic flavor.  We also have had a lot of raspberries and strawberries this year, which is good since our fruit trees didn’t produce (late frost).  I planted 12 tomato plants and they are producing like crazy.  I LOVE a fresh garden tomato! 

Squash and zucchini have been non-stop. I try to keep them picked small, but they just grow so fast.

 

It is so nice to make a stew, stir-fry, kabobs, or tortellini soup with veggies from my garden.  Those are some of my favorite dinners and are so cheap to make thanks to the garden. 

I love this little basket that we pick green beans in.  We fill it up, bring the basket in, snap them, cook them up, and it’s the perfect amount for our family.

It is always fun to work out in the garden with the kids chatting away.  They are in awe of being able to grow food.  They also enjoy the “different” looking veggies.  Kaylee thought that this carrot looked like it had its own legs.

This year we planted pumpkins, onions, herbs, tomatillos, tomatoes,  cucumbers, carrots, cilantro, peas, squash, zucchini, peas and beans.  It is so neat to be able to grow such a variety of yummy vegetables.

I’m just sad that I can’t grow year around.  :(

Gardening

My tomatoes are beautiful!  The hail hasn't hit them yet.  Remember how small they were in March as they were growing in my window sill.  Well,they are now at the top of the Wall of Waters.  I opened up the tops of them and put the cages in.  Here in a few weeks I will lift the wall of water over the top.

And if you zoom in, you can see blossoms all over them...

As I watered them tonight with my Fish Emulsion drink.  I thought I would share that with you.  Fish Emulsion STINKS horribly, but plants love it.  I usually give my tomatoes a drink of it once a month.

As I was working in my garden this week, the wind just wouldn't stop.  I told Ashley that the wind wasn't good for anything!  She quickly piped up, "Mom, it is good for one thing, when you toot, you don't ever smell it because the wind blows it away."  That girl of mine is always thinking!

I needed the wind tonight as I was watering with the fish emulsion. I have pretty lilacs nearby the garden that I have to run and smell after using this stuff.  They are supposed to be my garden's wind break, but they also act as my nose break.

Random

Are you ready for another random one?!?!

I have gotten comments and emails about scripture reading with the kids.  We read as a family every night before bed.  Stephen is so good about ALWAYS doing this.  I'm the bad one that will sometimes say, "oh Stephen can't we just go to bed tonight" to which he will quickly say "oh let's at least get in  a verse".  I know I'm bad and he is good and I am grateful for him.

We then send the kids to bed and they have 30 minutes to lay in their bed and read.  I LOVE this time because the non-readers turn into readers because they want to stay up an extra 30 minutes.  My readers are in heaven with the quiet and their good book.  It is during this time that the kids read in their own scriptures as well.  I think it is such a good, peaceful time to reflect on the day and just relax.  It is also building a habit of reading their scriptures. 

Next thing I wanted to share was our conference notebooks...

These notebooks are for each of the kids to take notes and write down their thoughts during conference.  Yes we do the conference packets, but I think it is important for the kids to personalize it and write down thoughts that they want to remember, especially as they are getting older.  The same notebooks are pulled out each conference.  This way they can reflect on feelings and thoughts from previous conferences, AND they have ONE book that all their notes are in.  I know that these books will become more and more valuable as they get older.

In the front I glued two papers.  One lists four ideas in preparing for conference.  The very first idea is to write down a question, concern or problem that you want direction on.  The other paper is on note taking.  It talks about writing down what the speakers are saying along with your thoughts and impressions.  At the end of the talk summarize what it means to you and what you can do better in that area.  It talks about including songs and lyrics that stand out to you.  At the conclusion, you conclude you notes, promptings, and goals.  Use these notes during personal scripture study and goal setting.  That is basically the jest of the two papers, but I think they are important reminders.

Another comment is on the tomato starts.  They DO need transplanted and you will see a HUGE difference when they are given a bigger container to grow in.  Local nurseries sell the plastic containers in various sizes for just a few cents a piece.  I save containers and reuse them.  I have A LOT of the generic square plastic ones and then a few nicer ones.  The plastic container helps so that they don't dry out as much as they do in the peat containers.

Ash is our plant whisper.  She talks to them, telling them that it is snowy outside and that they have to stay in a little longer.  She tells them if they are the tallest or the smallest.  She is known to say, "WOW you have another leaf coming out!"  You can kinda see in this picture how big they are getting.  They will go outside soon in the Wall of Waters.

AND my favorite lens that I have on my camera all the time is the Nikon 50mm 1.4.  LOVE it!

I think that answers a few questions.  Email or comment if you have another and I will try to answer it.  I do enjoy all of your sweet comments and emails!  You are all so nice!

Gardening with Kids

Family Fun had a lot of neat gardening ideas in this last issue.  The 2 liter bottle cut in half and inverted was quite clever.  I also LOVED this idea.  They took a trading card plastic protector, stuck it to the window with little suction cups and grew seeds in it.  The girls and I did a little experiment.  We put some seeds in paper towels and some in soil.  Here is a picture of our results...

The soil seeds grew a lot faster.  We talked about how they "should" because of all the nutrients the soil has in it compared to the paper towel.  Kaylee carefully scooped them out with a spoon and planted them in cups so that we can continue watching some of the beans grow. 

"One of the most delightful things about a garden is the anticipation it provides."  ~W.E. Johns

Soil

Grandma Jackie taught me a lot about gardening and I didn't even realize she was teaching me.  She would have me take out and smash eggshells into her garden along with a slew of other compost.  She would let me help plant seeds in the early Spring in her greenhouse and then help again to transplant them.  She would let us come down and pick bouquets of flowers to take home and arrange for our bedrooms.  I learned sooo many flower names from her because I was planting and cutting these flowers.  She was letting me be around them and in so doing I developed a love for flowers and gardening.

Grandma would also give her speeches on how soil is NOT dirt.  She would run her hands in her soil talking about how beautiful it was.  I used to look at her as a child thinking she was crazy to call it beautiful.  Now I dig my hands in commenting to my kids about how beautiful our garden soil is.  I carefully try to protect it during the Winter with leaves mulching the top of it.

My mom also has taught and is still teaching me about gardening.  She LOVES working outside and has beautiful gardens.

SOOO, secretly I am now teaching my kids.  I make them take our eggshells out to the garden boxes to crush.  Some crush them up better than others.  They do need to be crushed very fine, this picture is NOT a good example of that.  Eggshells add calcium to the soil.  The calcium can be very beneficial to tomatoes because they help prevent blossom end rot.  Calcium also helps for plant growth.  Eggshells also deter slugs and cutworms.  But once again make sure they are CRUSHED!

Coffee grounds are also wonderful to add in.  They slowly release nitrogen into the soil.  The smell also repels some pests.  So when I'm thinking about it and walk into a grocery store with a Starbucks, I will ask if they have any grounds for gardening.  They usually do and send me on my way with a bag.  The grounds are so black and remind me of what pure compost looks like.

Compost of other fruits and vegetables are also another incredible source of minerals for the soil.  You take a banana that grew in Ecuador and by composting and adding it to your garden here, you are literally putting in those minerals that it grew from in Ecuador.  Every soil is different and the produce that grows from the various soils can add a little something to your own soil!

Throw in some free llama manure, chicken and other farm animal manure and you are on your way to beautiful soil!

What do you add to YOURs?

Another Random One

Here is yet another random post...

Mom and I got our seeds ordered today.  I also planted my tomato seeds inside today even though the temperatures outside were below zero.  I try and start my tomatos around Valentines Day and then put them outside in Wall of Waters the first week of April.  We still get some good snowstorms in April, but they seem to thrive inside the Walls.  I'm just getting sooo excited to start gardening outside again.

A couple of weeks ago I went over to a friend's house and she helped me get my boys cub scout awards all set to frame.  She had the fabulous idea of using the back of the cub scout shirt as the background for the awards.  I just cut the badges off the shirt and hot glued them on to the shirt background.  The frame has the glass a half inch out so that there was plenty of room for the awards.  Now I just need to get these hung in their rooms AND keep pushing them along with their Boy Scouts.

I have gotten a lot of emails and questions for ideas of what I put into the kids mailboxes.  So here it is:  treats, fun things from Target's dollar section, Valentine socks, can of pop, Valentines that grandmas send, notes from Stephen and I, the kids even make their own notes and pictures to each other, candy, my sister Kristy put different sprinkles and things to decorate cut out cookies in each of her girls boxes, jewelry for the girls, gift cards, Valentine pencils, coupon booklets... seriously the list can be endless.  Here was the pink hot chocolate from Target and then the little girls helped me bag the fun heart marshmallows to go with it for each kid. 

I always smile when I have the little girls fill the boxes and put the flag up.  Ashley always tells Jerrica to close her eyes when they do hers so that she doesn't see the surprise.  Then right after they finish she will say, "Jerrica open your mailbox and see what's in it", like she hasn't been there filling them.

Then the other question I get is about my girls hair.  I do it every day because it drives me crazy if its hanging in their eyes all day.  It really doesn't take long to pull it into something and then they feel better AND look better all day long.  I did a post about hair clear back HERE.

Next is Rebecca's heart picture.  I didn't take my boys pictures, because they are soooo old! :)  I did however take Rebecca's picture for Valentines too.  I just don't post everything here, some pictures I save for the kids books.  BUT since there were those that were curious, here are a couple of Becca's... (also the free Valentine card templates were from Florabella and MCP Actions blogs)

I do have a photography post coming up that will answer some of the other questions. 

AND I think that is enough randomness for one night!

The Garden

We have been in Arizona for a reunion and just got back.  I LOVE to run check out my garden when I have been gone.  It seems like it grows so fast when I'm not peeking out at it every second.  The kids came out to help me harvest what was ripe.  After we gathered our pile of peppers, tomatoes, squash, beans, and tomatillos I couldn't resist sending in one of the kids for my camera.

Mom sent home a bag of tomatoes when we stopped in to see her last night.  SOOO with all these tomatoes from my garden, mixed with moms and the ones in the fridge before the trip, it looks like I will be doing a little canning.  I just LOVE gardening!  I love being able to go outside and bring in something for my family to eat.  Before we left one our trip I made one of my favorite salsa recipes using my own onions, cilantro, tomatoes and peppers.  I also made a yummy tortellini soup with some of OUR vegetables. 

Once again I have to say I LOVE to garden!

Tomatoes

I have had this little tomato routine for quite a few years now.  I plant my seeds inside around Valentine's Day.  Then the first weekend of April I plant them outside in wall of waters.  Yes, April is very early to plant outside.  We still have blizzards that come through.  Snow piles up.  Yet, with the wall of waters they just keep growing away and aren't even phased by the cold.  Then when we hit mid-May, and it's time to start buying seedlings in the store for $4, I don't need to because mine are just as big if not BiGGeR!!!

It saves money, which is always a plus with Stephen.  AND is fun for me to plant and start growing a little earlier than May.

My parents are here right now and mom helped me plant a few more outside today.  The others that I planted last Friday have already braved two snow falls.  Take a look at one inside the wall of water ...

I'm already imagining the tomatoes that are soon to come.  I just can't wait to start planting more things.  Hurry Spring, Hurry Spring!

Planting

Mom and I put in an order to Gurney's that just arrived.  Just going through the seed packets and looking over my list got me so excited for Spring to get here.  Then I have a a few dozen little plants growing in my craft room that keep me excited.

I LOVE to see new growth.  I LOVE watching Ashley water and talk to my little plants.  She says things like, "Do you just like me because I give you water?..."  "You are getting so big, I'm so proud of you!"  I'm surprised that I don't have giant redwood trees growing by the way Ash talks to them.

The Harvest

So it snowed yesterday and froze last night. Do you know what that means? Lots of veggies and flowers had to come inside.

I remember when I was a little girl and my Grandma Jackie would bring in all the flowers that she could so that they wouldn’t freeze. My sisters and I would go down and make arrangements to take home. i think that’s why we like to do flower arrangements. I think that grandma was right. It is just as important to harvest your flowers as it is your vegetables.

Today I sent some dahlias with the kids, to take to their teachers. And then I kept some flowers to put here and there in the house.

Then I got busy taking care of the vegetables. I even made pear sauce today from a friend’s recipe. I think I like it better than applesauce. It was divine!!!

Canning

Remember these …

Well we have had tomatoes in salads, tomatoes in sandwiches, just sliced and salted tomatoes AND I dare say we are starting to tire of tomatoes! Yesterday I sat there eating breakfast and saw 20 tomatoes staring at me on the counter. I couldn’t let them waste, it was too much work growing them. Yet, there was NO way that my family was going to eat all 20 before they wasted. Another problem was that there were only 20, not REALLY enough to can.

So I got on the phone to Aunt Callie for tomato canning advice. She said that I should just do a few jars of stewed tomatoes. Then later on this Fall when I have a lot more ripening at a time I can do spaghetti sauce. She gave me all the necessary tips and other tomato recipe ideas.

SOOOO with the Ball Blue Book in hand I tackled my 20 tomatoes – turned them into four pint jars, and NOW they are NOT going to be wasted!

Aren’t they beautiful?!? I kept saying that to the kids and they thought I was crazy to call them “beautiful”. However, when they “can” their “own” tomatoes someday, I’m sure they will be beautiful to them.

Then tonight I went out to the garden and I’m kicking myself that I didn’t go out before I canned the tomatoes because there were a few more that I could have done. Oh well!

Also, I came across a fun blog tonight from Stephen’s cousin’s blog. She had just posted over some of her canning recipes. Check it out – www.youcancan.blogspot.com.

My Garden after all the Rains

It seems like every year some vegetables just really do well and others not so much.  Then the next year they reverse roles.  This year we have had a TON of rain, which has been wonderful for our new lawn, but not so wonderful for a garden that needs hot temperatures.  My peas did really good due to the cool weather, BUT my little strawberry picker turned into a pea picker.

Our squash, zuchini, cucumbers and pumpkins need hot temperatures.  The pumpkins are VERY small and we have only had four zuchini’s so far.  However, the heat has come and I see them producing NOW!

After stealing corn from Stephen’s corn patch, my garden box of corn is looking good.  They even have ears on them!!!  Exciting!!!

And the tomatoes…  We have eaten three, BUT there are a ton that will be ripening soon.  I learned a couple of years ago that tomato plants need to be pruned so that all the growth and nutrients go to the tomatoes instead of the stems and leaves.  What a difference that has made!  Before I would have huge, gorgeous plants with just a few tomatoes.  Now they are LOADED with big, Beef Steak tomatoes.  You can see the pruning in the second picture.  My grandma used to say that the base of the plants need a lot of heat, well how are they going to get it with a lot of foilage shading the bottom.  Anyway, look at the tomato loads…

Last week I dug my potato plant that came up from last year somehow.  The kids loved seeing all the hidden potatoes.  And I was excited to have potatoes to mash up for our Sunday dinner!  Anyway, that’s our garden!  I wish that we wouldn’t have had those hail storms, I wish that my carrots were doing better, I wish that my soybeans would grow more, and why have my peppers not really made an appearance this year!!!!